I am getting together everything I have finished to turn in today for craft show #1. I tried to load a picture, but blogger will not let me right now. I will take a few days off craft show sewing. Tomorrow is a trip to my folks and U.Va. Thursday and Friday I need to work with my daughter to sew outfits for three dolls for the Salvation Army to give as Christmas gifts. I need to start getting together our shoeboxes for the Graham Christmas ministry. I think after Sunday when I see what sold or didn't sell at this show I will begin again. That will give me 12 days until the next show.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday I only got four aprons completed. I cut out 13 new bags. I ran my errands, then in the afternoon a friend came over for a visit. Later we had family movie night. We watched "Over the Hedge" for the first time. I have to finish those aprons today. I am running out of time. I have to have everything tagged and turned in by Tuesday. Tomorrow is church, Tuesday night is Family Fun Night, and Wednesday we have to drive up to U.Va. My husband has a doctor's appointment there.

I loved the material I used for this apron. I tried to lay it so you could see the bottom of the apron. It has a nice scalloped edge.







I couldn't forget the men. Here is one of the Bar B Q aprons I make for men. I am also making some out of Nascar material this year.

















This is one of the bags finished with a snap on it. I like this material combination. You can't see so well in this photo, but the centers of the flowers on the base of the bag are ringed in black. I thought that went well with the black snap.













Last, a picture of my new chairs. Today is my birthday and this is what the General gave me for a present. They recline back, but do not rock. We had two rocking recliners in the Living room. We have three children. Rocking Recliners and small children equal banged up walls.

Sew Long for Now!

Happy Birthday to our favorite family pet! Our dog is now 13 years old. She doesn't look a day over 10 does she?

I over slept this morning. Yikes! Yesterday I finished all the bags I had cut out. I finished two aprons and sewed up the ties for four aprons. I wasn't feeling well and I had to take the children to singing school and Captain Kitty to violin lessons. So I took an evening break from sewing. I also fell asleep. Needless to say I couldn't go to sleep at bedtime then. I was up sewing until 1:30 a.m.

I have to go to the grocery store this morning. One of the most dreaded chores in my life. Next comes cooking. LOL! I need a few things from JoAnn's and then I have to get back home and sew. Today my goal is to finish at least six of the aprons I have cut out and cut out some more bags. So it's off to work I go.

Sew Long for Now!

Aprons and bags. I have been busy sewing aprons and bags. I finished four aprons and one hooded brown robe for a Jawah (some Star Wars thing) costume on Tuesday. Yesterday I worked on putting together 11 bags.


Here is one of the bags almost complete. I needed to put the snap on and tada! I am going to use the snaps you have to hammer on. I tried one on a finished bag and it works lovely. I have 9 more bags in various forms of completion to work on today. I also have 13 aprons to work on. Then I need to cut out more bags and more aprons. Craftshow season is a busy time.

Sew Long for Now!

As a Christian we are to go the extra mile for people. Sometimes that is a difficult thing to do. I didn't get much sewing done yesterday because the lady I digitized the design for wanted it tweaked. I should have told her I didn't have time to do the design in the first place. I did one for her last year and she wanted change after change after change. I spent most of yesterday on the phone with her and changing her design. I redid it six times and sent it to her. In all I got less than $1 per hour to do that design. She later confessed she was very picky and that she wouldn't get someone on the internet to do it for her because they wanted $10 per 1000 stitches. The design had 8000 stitches. I talked to the general last night and told him I did not want to do any more designs for her.

I did manage to finish 3 aprons. Here are two that I thought were just as cute as could be. It's a Mother/daughter set.

I must get a lot done today.

Off to sew!

Sew Long for Now!

I have been working hard. I finished altering a prom dress. I digitized a design. That process involves quite a lot of work including sewing out the design and working out the bugs. I also cut out 20 aprons and finished sewing 4. I am hoping to sew aprons and cut out more bags today.


This is one of the full aprons. I included a picture of a close up of the material below.

This is some cute fabric. It has a gold glitter in it.
Well, I am off to work.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday we decided to escape the city for a while and go up to the mountains. The trees are beginning to turn and the sky was that beautiful autumn blue, who could resist.

On the way up into the mountains I mentioned several times to my husband about the multitude of gnats. He replied that it had been raining for days before and the moisture had brought them out. HAH! When we got to our destination we noticed ladybugs landing on the car.

Not only landing on the car, everywhere. When we got out of the car we all got covered in ladybugs. The children were trying to brush them off. They were on my glasses, in my pockets, I even had to get them from under my shirt! Swarms of ladybugs were everywhere. I felt like I was in some horror movie, "Attack of The Ladybugs." They tried to fly in our ears, they tried to fly up our nostrils. We tried to walk, but after 20 minutes of fighting off the ladybugs we tried to brush them off and jump in the car. We were not quite successful and the car had many ladybugs in it! Going back down the moutain we were trapping and putting ladybugs out the windows. That was the wierdest experience I have had in a long time.

I did get some sewing related work done yesterday. I digitized a design for a lady and I cut out 7 bags, 6 tissue covers, and 6 key chains.

Sew Long for Now!

As I was uploading some pictures of cards we made at our stamping party last night I found two pictures I forgot to post yesterday. With the bags I also made a coordinating tissue cover and key chain.

These match the lining of the bag. I also cut out four more bags yesterday afternoon. I have material ironed and layed out to cut out another four today.

Sew Long for Now!

I hadn't realized how long it has been since I last blogged. It's been pretty busy around here lately and I just lost track.

This is an apron I made for the craft shows. I loved the fabric!


















And finally...a bag I am happy with. This is the bag I am going with for the craft shows. It is lined and has three inside pockets. I am still thinking about how to secure the flap. I don't want to use velcro. Now, I have two weeks before the first craft show and 4 items made.

Gotta get to work!

Sew Long for Now!

Here is the latest attempt at a new bag design. I quilted three pieces on each side. The stripe fabric has a coordinating stripe to the solid. The bag is 8 inches wide by 9 inches tall. It is lined and has magnetic closures. There are also four pockets on the inside. The bag went together fairly easy, but still is not quite what I was looking for.

I have also been busy with other sewing. I split a design for a lady to use in her smaller hoop. I hemmed three pair of pants, I made new straps for a formal dress, and I cut out another bag.

Sew long for Now!

I have been working this weekend to finish these hats for my nephew. I have two more to go. Hats are not the easiest thing to embroider, but with the new hoop I bought they have been easier this time.

Sew Long for Now!

I have had a week of both progress and set backs. This is another idea for bags for the craft shows that I am working on. The first quilted bags I did ended up way too small when I sewed the outsides up. I decided to try putting two of them together. I have had them laying here all week trying to think how to fix them. So once again I have bags laying everywhere half finished.

It seems everytime I get one thing done two more come in. I am very thankful for the business, but I am feeling a bit anxious because I am just not good with so much work piled up and so many unfinished projects.

Last week I purchased a new hoop it all to assist me in embroidering hats for my nephew. The hoop has made it a bit easier, but the first design I embroidered was not right for the hats. I re-worked the design and today did three hats. I have 8 more to do.

I exercised every morning except today. I woke up with a headache so I went back to bed and slept until 8 a.m. Lessons have went fairly well this week. We stayed on task pretty much all the week.

I cut out four aprons today and I am excited about the material I used. I need to figure out how many weeks until the first craftshow and how much I want to take to it. Then I need to make a plan. That and all the added sewing that people keep bringing to me. God has blessed me and I need to be thankful and do my best with the gifts He gives me!

Sew Long for Now!

Aren't these blues and yellows just delicious? These are for more bags. I have 8 of the pieced bags quilted. Next I have to put them together with their lining and handles.

I got up with more resolve this morning to get myself together. I feel like I have been floundering in so many ways. I exercised, read my scriptures, baked, got all the lessons done for the day, cleaned the kitchen, finished a lady's mending, ripped a broken zipper out of a pair of pants, made three meals, went for a walk, quilted the bags, and knitted on a pair of socks. Oh, and did 2 loads of laundry. Next, I am going to get into bed at a decent hour.

Sew Long for Now!

This has been a week that I seemed to have done a lot of work, but don't have a lot to show for it. I sewed almost everyday. I just don't have a sense of accomplishment. I think there are several reasons for this. The major one being all the half done projects I seem to have covering all my work surfaces. Here is the pile of half done bags I have. I hope to finish them soon!

Do you ever dream? I don't mean REM type, I mean dream as in think thoughts of what you would like your life to be like? I seem to find my thoughts wandering towards dreams lately. Dreams of becoming a quiet, gentle lady like woman. I am not. Dreams of having a body that would walk gracefully when I moved. I do not. Dreams of having a more positive attitude on things. Mine is not always. I struggle with so many things in my life. I struggle with selfishness. Sometimes I would just love to spend the day doing things for me. Now mind you that is not how things work. I don't live out these selfish dreams, but it bothers me the same to have them. I guess my biggest problem lately is not having enough hours in my days. I seem to always have ten more things on my to do list for some one else. I remember a time when my children were younger when I could capture the moments of the day with them. I remember sitting in a rocking chair reading for hours on end to our daughter. I remember slower paced days when it didn't always seem I was rushing from one thing to the next. It hit me today that even though we do Bible study together 5 days a week we don't sing hymns anymore because we seem to have to hurry on with school work. I was trying to fit baking and walking into my days and I just don't seem to find the hours. The strange thing is we are not running the roads half as much as we did the last several years. I guess I just need to work on my priorities.

Sew Long for Now!